We love Fred Meyer's!

We had such an awesome week in Boise! Initially I was a bit nervous about the flights with Jack and getting all our bags packed with everything we needed and blah blah blah. After fretting about it for a bit, I made my check lists and got to work. Eventually I just came to the conclusion whatever happens we would just have to deal with as it came. You know what happened? Absolutely nothing! Jack was great on every flight! We even got some great compliments from other passengers, giving him an A++ for traveling infants! I wanted to take pictures to document first plane ride but thought it probably would have been looked down upon by security.

So I already shared about Race Day, which was the day after we arrived there. After some recovery time, we continued with Kristen's fun plans for us. We took the kids to the Idaho Historical Museum, where the "mascot" is a two-headed calf that is super creepy. We did learn a lot about Idaho though! The kids got to try out some saddles and a boat.

By Monday it was a million and fifty degrees outside so we decided to take a trip to the Y and go swimming to be followed up with some dollar theater fun. This was Jack's first time in a pool and he loved every second of it, a smile was plastered to his face. The big kids got to go down the huge slide they had all by themselves. Uncle Sam took them to the top and helped them get on to slide down to their mom and dad at the bottom. Lincoln flip flopped and spun around coming out head first, while Piper sat up straight as could be the entire way down. Later Sam said he had to coax Piper on the slide. Jack got a taste of water slide too in the kiddie pool. I'm sure it was a lot more amusing to watch Sam lean halfway down the slide to let him go and me climb halfway up to make sure he didn't flip over. He did get to be dunked under water after coming down and that was apparently the best thing that ever happened to him. I think Lincoln is going to be swimming laps around us by the next time, he was ready to let go of his mamma in that big pool and already able to tread some water on his own!! After swimming we went to see Coraline-which I thought was super creepy but the kids seemed to like it. Jack liked the extremely bizarre scenes in it. That was his first movie theater experience, which I felt he did great about as well, unfortunately his daddy couldn't take the noise he was making and took him out to the lobby 2/3 through the movie. I think Sam was just creeped out and didn't want to admit it! Everyone was exhausted at the end of the day.

Tuesday was a spa/movie day. Kristen and I got some coupons for 50% off of first time services from The Stepping Stone Spa and took advantage of some time to ourselves. She got her haircut(which was super cute, but totally not the point of a spa coupon) and I got a "spa pedicure" which is weird because I hate feet, but I would do it again. esp after how sore my feet were from the race! The boys went to see Star Trek when we got back and Kristen and Bob got to go on a fun date! Wednesday was just a rest day, but we did go to Babies R Us where I got a sling to carry Jack in. That's right a sling. I remember thinking that they were so weird and would be unusable really quickly, that the baby would hate it and squirm around it or that it would horribly uncomfortable. I was WRONG! I am totally in love with this thing, as is Jack. I carried him through the zoo, Craters of the Moon, the airport, the lake, everywhere and he has never fussed in it and I never had an aching shoulder or back. It's awesome and can be used until he's 36lbs and future babies! Not that any are in the works yet..

Thursday was Zoo day, Jack's second zoo trip but he was sleeping for the first and didn't really care about it then. This time he was all about it so we are counting it as his first, mostly for his Aunt Kristen's sake.

Friday we went to see the Craters of the Moon national monument. This was basically lava formations and the caves they created called lava tubes. We were guided across the hardened lava, learning about the different kinds and what lived around it and how this place was created. Then we were led into a lava tube or cave and were told, "You can go out the easy way-which was the way we came in with the stairs, or you can climb over that mountain of shifty rocks and come out to a different place." Of course we were advised that with the small kids and me with the baby strapped to me in the sling that we probably shouldn't take that way. We waited for the guide to leave and promptly started climbing rocks. It was so much fun and the kids all loved it, even Jack who looked around and just took everything in. You may think that it was risky for us to take Jack through that, but we did take great care and Sam led the way to plot out the best paths for us. There was another cave that we tried to explore, but with one flashlight and about an inch of water on the cave floor it didn't seem safe for the kiddos. We did all go down as far as we could see in it though and it was a nice rest from the heat just outside.

Some other cute pictures:

BTW Fred Meyer's is the best grocery store in all the world. It is now owned by Kroger and I think everyone in Jonesboro should petition for them to step up their game here. We are suffering a great injustice here.